Sir Gawain and the Green Knight quotes

For of back and of breast his body was big, Yet his waist and his womb were worthily small, And his members, each one, match’d them in measure, full clean. All wonder’d at his hue, And eke his lordly mien;

He seem’d bold knight and true, But glow’d all over green.

All wondrous in green was this wight, and his weeds: A close-fitting coat that clung on his body, A merry mantle over it, meetly adorn’d With fair-trimmed fur, a lining full fine Of blythe ermine bright;

Then he turns to his colt and, catching the bridle, Steps into steelbow and strides aloft, Holding by the hair his head in his hand, And as soberly seats him in saddle again

As no únhap had ail’d him, though headless he was.

Sans head, He writhèd every way The gruesome trunk that bled; Ere he had said his say Many of him had dread.

There were chalk-white chimneys, the choicest of art, That blink’d all bright on the bastel roof; And painted pinnacles upon it were sprinkled, Amid the crenellations cluster’d so thick,

They seem’d pared out of paper, a palace of fäerie.

To that free on the foal ’twas a fáir sìght; Coúld he but compass, that cloister within, In hostel to harbour, while holiday lasted in hall!

They rode by banks where boughs were bare, They clomb by cliffs where the cóld clùng; High were the clouds, but ’twas ugly thereunder; It mizzled on the moor, on the mountains it pour’d—

Each hill had a hat and a hood of vapour.

Brooks boil’d and broke as their banks they swept, And shatter’d on shores where adown they shot. Oh! wildsome was the way where by wood they should ride, Till ’twas soon the season when the sun rises that tide.

may weal you betide From the Athel on High that all honour ordains! Greet me with courtesy your comely consort, Both the one and the other my honour’d ladies, That bewiled with their wit the unwary Gawain.

’Tis in faith no marvel if a fool go mad, And by wiles of women to sorrow be won;

For of old was Adam by óne beguiled, And Solomon by sundry; and Samson eftsoons— Dalilah dealt him his weird, and David thereafter Was blinded by Báthsheba, and had bale very much. All wasted by women!

This is the token of the untruth that I was ta’en in, And I must needs it wear the while that I live;

A man may hide his harm but úndo he cannot,

If the knot is once knit, it may never be loos’d.” The King him comforts;

This is the token of the untruth that I was ta’en in, And I must needs it wear the while that I live; A man may hide his harm but úndo he cannot,

If the knot is once knit, it may never be loos’d.

” The King him comforts;